NHRA

Commerce: Doug Kalitta preview

NHRA Top Fueler Doug Kalitta anticipates aggressive competition in Atlanta COMMERCE, Ga., (April 15, 2009) -- Doug Kalitta, driver of the bright yellow, 8,000-horsepower, nitro-fueled, No. 50 Top Fuel dragster, is keen to head south to the Peach ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:50 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

NHRA Top Fueler Doug Kalitta anticipates aggressive competition in Atlanta

COMMERCE, Ga., (April 15, 2009) -- Doug Kalitta, driver of the bright yellow, 8,000-horsepower, nitro-fueled, No. 50 Top Fuel dragster, is keen to head south to the Peach State this weekend, April 16-19, for the annual running of the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at historic Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., just a few miles northeast of the Atlanta city limits. With a good weather forecast and a long entry list, Kalitta expects ultra-close competition down in Dixie.

"The last time I checked, there are at least 20 dragsters on the entry list," Kalitta, a 44-year old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., and 31-time NHRA national event winner, said. "That's great for the fans and it's great for us at Team Kalitta. It's more challenging when there are that many cars, and it gives us an opportunity to dig a little deeper and make sure we go out there with our best foot forward to be one of the 16 cars racing on Sunday.

"We've been battling some consistency problems with our dragster in qualifying lately, so we know we have to get those issues resolved as soon as we get on the track at Atlanta Dragway and hopefully get a good qualifying spot. That's our main goal right now. Once we achieve that, we'll try to take it a step further in eliminations and pick up another trophy in Atlanta.

"We also want to make a strong showing this weekend for our friends at Summit Racing Equipment. They're longtime supporters of our team, and it would great if we could get to the winner's circle at their event."

Kalitta won back-to-back Top Fuel title trophies at the event in Commerce in 2005 and 2006. Last season, he qualified his dragster in the No. 7 spot for eliminations. He was defeated in round one.

-credit: km

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Italia: Emanuele Naspetti Imola preview

Next article Richmond Int'l Raceway news 2009-04-15

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

19 min

Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels and the Hendrick 5 are who we say they are

Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Final NASCAR Cup points standings after 2026 Homestead finale

Official race results: NASCAR Cup Homestead season finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Official race results: NASCAR Cup Homestead season finale

Ryan Blaney wins Homestead NASCAR Cup finale as Kyle Larson claims 2026 title

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

5 h

Ryan Blaney wins Homestead NASCAR Cup finale as Kyle Larson claims 2026 title

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts